My little Abby turned 4! granted, it was exactly 3 months ago....but still!! FOUR?!?!!? How did she get so old?
We had a fun little family celebration here at home. She got gifts that she would NEVER have gotten if it weren't for the post-Christmas 75% off clearance section at Target. And I totally plan on reminding her of that when the day comes that she figures out how ripped-off she is by having her birthday right after the Holidays.
And we invited a bunch of her friends to Chuck-E-Cheese for an evening of games, rubber-pizza (and Subway sandwiches that I sneaked in for the adults) and cupcakes. I'd never really imagined any of our kids having a party at Chuck-E-Cheese. But then again, there are a LOT of things that i never really imagined myself doing as a parent....
Abby continues to be the sweet and happy girl she's pretty much been since birth. Although we're starting to see a bit more of a temper in her, she really is mostly the mellow sister that the other sisters want to play with. She loves reading books with Mom, any kind of puzzles and especially GAMES! She got Charades for her birthday (or was it for Christmas?) and she wants to play it about 3 times a day. She's actually really good at it, too! She loves memory games, Guess Who, and really just about any game that she can convince anyone to play with her. She also LOVES movies. Of all my children, she has the greatest...um...capacity to tune out all her surroundings and truly focus on whatever show in on the TV. She's really not picky about what she watches, which is nice....i guess :)
Her speech has FINALLY really started to improve. Even just in the past couple of weeks Reid and I have both really noticed her consciously choosing to say her "s" and "sh" sounds correctly. She has known how to do it for 4 months now, but just in the past 2-4 weeks is she doing it without being reminded. Her "R" and "L" sounds are still pretty rough...but those aren't considered a "problem" until she's like 6 or 7.
She's my pickiest eater. Granted, most of my friends will want to shoot me in the head for referring to ANY of my kids as "picky" but still....she's the least willing to try new things, and the most likely to try a bite or two of something and announce that she doesn't like it. Of course her instinct to survive is stronger than her pickiness, so she eventually eats what's given to her. But she often doesn't like it.
She's the first one to wake up in the morning (and the first one to fall asleep at night), but is happy to just read books in her bed (the top-bunk) while she waits for her sisters to wake up. Their room is pretty light from about 6:30 on. They don't get up until 8ish. And, unlike her loud little sister, i have NO idea how long she's been awake each morning when i go in to get them. Bless her for this trait of hers :)
She's very excited about her baby brother coming. She's full of all sorts of questions about him, and about how he'll get here and what he'll eat and how he'll eat it. Side Story: She asked Reid the other day if milk comes out of his "boobies", too? (don't judge me for teaching my kids that word to describe all upper parts of the female anatomy. It just seemed so much better than any of the correct alternatives, okay!) Reid said no and she asked him then why do you even have them? And that, my dears, is a question i have NO idea how to answer? any thoughts on that?
She LOVES to play pretend with her sisters. She loves preschool. She LOVES her ballet/tap class. She loves watching Grace's soccer games. She loves playdates with friends. She HATES chores and cleaning up, although she's getting better at them. She hates being excluded from ANYTHING. She HATES getting ready for bed, though once she's in bed we almost NEVER hear a peep from her.
She loves her mom and dad. I wouldn't say she prefers one of us over the other, but Reid might say she prefers me. Either way, she really is just happy to have us around. And we feel the same way about her!
We love you, Abby!
